The mother who rebuilt a community from loss

“Some people choose to live in a beautiful place. Some people choose to make the place they live beautiful.” After losing two sons, Mama Shu chose the latter – turning grief into Avalon Village.

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Across the U.S., an estimated 16 million abandoned properties signal disinvestment and in turn the message kids receive is that beauty, safety, and opportunity are for somewhere else. In Highland Park, Michigan, Shamayim “Mama Shu” Harris refused that story. After losing her two sons — one to a hit-and-run, another to violence — she channeled grief into purpose and began rebuilding a single block, one lot, one dumpster, one volunteer day at a time. “Some people choose to live in a beautiful place. Some people choose to make the place they live beautiful.”

That effort became Avalon Village: a community built from the ground up, where abandoned lots are now spaces for learning, play, and connection. What started with a $3,000 house has grown into more than 45 properties across three city blocks with solar-lit streets, shared gardens, a mini library, and the Homework House: a co-learning hub where young people get meals, tutoring, makerspace time, and STEM labs. Each day, 45+ learners come for homeschool support and after-school programs that emphasize agency, craft, and mentorship. Built with neighbors and for neighbors, Avalon shows what happens when locals lead — retirees bring toolkits, teens tend gardens, and each season of effort makes the block more alive, more usable, and more hopeful.

Avalon Village isn’t a one-off miracle; It’s proof that real change can start with one block. By rooting education in place and relationships, the Village helps kids discover who they are and what they can build. This is bottom-up leadership in practice: a blueprint any community can adapt to turn vacant land into living classrooms, and loss into a shared future.

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